


peccatores peribunt

by angelsaves



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Established Relationship, Kink Meme, Kneeling, Latin, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Podfic Welcome, Self-Flagellation, like super established, mortification of the flesh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:07:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25499563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelsaves/pseuds/angelsaves
Summary: Nicky's into self-flagellation. Joe doesn't love it, but he very, very much does love Nicky.For the kink meme prompthere, beginning with "You know how medieval Christianity got real weird sometimes?" (Yep. I sure do.)
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 20
Kudos: 125





	peccatores peribunt

"Joe," Nicky says, and the particular intonation with which he says his name tells Joe everything he needs to know.

"Yes, my love?" Joe closes his book and turns in his desk chair to face Nicky, who is standing before him, shirtless, with his hands spread beseechingly.

"I need it," Nicky says. It's true, he does: his beautiful eyes are welling up with the love of his Lord and the need for His pain.

"Tell me what you need," Joe says, not because he doesn't know, but because it is how they do this thing, between them.

"I need —" Nicky swallows, and Joe watches the movement of his throat avidly. "I need to mortify my flesh. To put to death my sinful nature. To make myself less unworthy of the gifts I have received."

"You are worthy," Joe says. "You always have been, heart of my heart."

Nicky drops to his knees, hitting the floor in front of Joe, his eyes pleading. "I need the pain," he says. "Joe — my love — please, let me have this."

"How could I deny you?" Joe reaches out and cups Nicky's jaw in one hand, feeling warm skin and faint stubble beneath his touch. "Yes, Nicky. You have my permission."

"And your blessing?" Nicky asks — soft, so soft, his voice.

"Always that," Joe promises him.

He keeps Nicky's discipline in his desk drawer, in an old, old wooden box; he takes it out and runs the seven cords, knotted thrice each, through his fingers, then lays it across his open hands. "Here," he says, "my beloved."

Nicky bends forward gracefully and presses a kiss to the bundled cords, with all the fervor of his beautiful, suffering heart. "Thank you," he whispers, and takes up the scourge, beginning the first of his psalms. "Beatus vir, qui non abiit in consilio impiorum —"

It is difficult to watch this, still, after so many years, but Joe makes himself do so. Perhaps it is his own form of self-flagellation, a way to share the pain and love and vulnerability that his Nicky experiences, lash after lash.

"Ne perdas cum impiis Deus animam meam —" The recitation breaks off with a gasp; one of the cords has wrapped around Nicky's side, snapping viciously. He continues: "— et cum viris sanguinum vitam meam..."

There is an undeniable beauty to Nicky's actions. His face is ethereal, transported in a kind of ecstasy that only this violent communion with his God can provide. The mark of that stray cord slashes livid across his ribs; Joe knows that by the time Nicky has completed his 30 psalms, that mark will have disappeared, layered with dozens upon dozens of its fellows.

"— omnes qui speratis in Domino." Finished, Nicky carefully lays the discipline on the floor; with a sigh, he tips forward into Joe's lap.

"My love," Joe says, touching the welts across Nicky's beloved back and shoulders with all the delicacy in his heart.

"Thank you," Nicky says once more, nuzzling his face into Joe's thigh.

**Author's Note:**

> the title means "sinners will perish," psalms 36:20.
> 
> i got my psalm bits from [here](http://www.sacredbible.org/studybible/OT-21_Psalms.htm).


End file.
